You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, my lurker friend!

Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, an unparalleled Subaru community full of the greatest Subaru gurus and modders on the planet! We offer technical information and discussion about all things Subaru, the best and most popular all wheel drive vehicles ever created.

We offer all this information for free to everyone, even lurkers like you! All we ask in return is that you sign up and give back some of what you get out - without our awesome registered users none of this would be possible! Plus, you get way more great stuff as a member! Lurk to lose, participate to WIN*!

Say hello and join the conversation

Subscribe to topics and forums to get automatic updates

Get your own profile and make new friends

Classifieds with all sorts of Subaru goodies

Photo hosting in our gallery

Meet other cool people with cool cars

Seriously, what are you waiting for? Make your life more fulfilling and join today! You and your Subaru won't regret it, we guarantee** it.

* The joy of participation and being generally awesome constitutes winning** Not an actual guarantee, but seriously, you probably won't regret it!

Cranks and cranks, starts and fuel smell- Fixed!

I swapped in another engine* to my '90 Legacy and it ran well for a day. I drove to work fine and then @ lunch, it cranks and cranks, and finally runs, but idles rough. It smells of fuel after it starts, too.

If I turn it off and restart it immediately it starts right up, but if it sits for a couple of hours it's back to the same issue of needing to crank excessively before it'll run.

NO CELs.

My initial guess is I have a fuel flooding issue, but where do I look? If it's one or more leaking injectors, is that an 'bad injector' or an issue w/the fuel rail, fuel pressure regulator (FPR), fuel filter, fuel pump or ???

Thanks!
TD

* The engine is an EJ22T (turbo) w/bigger injectors and turbo. I'm running a tuned ECU desiged for the injectors, and as stated, it ran fine when initially installed but just started 'acting stupid' yesterday.

If an injector is bleeding down, checking resistance will tell you nothing. Sniffing the plugs for fuel will tell you which cylinder is being flooded. A bottle of strong fuel system cleaner in the fuel tank can sometimes clean the varnish off of injectors and the insides of the rails and clear up issues like this.

If an injector is bleeding down, checking resistance will tell you nothing. Sniffing the plugs for fuel will tell you which cylinder is being flooded. A bottle of strong fuel system cleaner in the fuel tank can sometimes clean the varnish off of injectors and the insides of the rails and clear up issues like this.

Last time I had a bad injector I also had a CEL...so if the injector IS bad, not sure why it's not showing up in the codes.

In this case, the injectors were cleaned/tested about 2500 miles ago (but I bought 'em used), and installed w/new O-rings. I cleaned the rails w/in the last 10 miles - just before installing them....coincidentally I also had the Last set of injectors cleaned/tested shortly before they failed.....WTH??

I may swap in my other set of injectors/rails to verify....they were recently cleaned/tested, too....

The resistance of the one injector most likely isn't bad enough to cause a error code. It may need to be more like 10 times the normal resistance before the ECU would recognize a problem. I would recommend replacing it with another one that matches the others resistance readings.

Check the fuel pressure regulator to make sure it is working within specs and not over pressuring the fuel input. Check the plugs to see if they show signs of running too rich. The check valve in the fuel pump may be letting fuel back flow to the tank. See if the engine fires right up when you spray some starter fluid into the intake.

Sorry to bump again, but I wanted to update this post for those that assisted in getting it fixed:

It was an O-ring - NOT a bad injector. I tested the injector today b4 taking it out of the fuel rail and it tested OK - WTH? - so I removed it and the bottom O-ring was torn??? I'm dropping it off w/the other set I just bought to be tested/cleaned to verify, but appears it was my poor install that caused the issue. I did not rush the install, and have installed many injectors before, but obviously was careless enough to screw one up.

What do people recommend to lube the O-rings to aid installing these dang things? I've heard vasoline and motor oil...is there something else??